Inslee says budget deal ‘imminent’

Citing what he called a “breakthrough moment” — the details of which he declined to give — Gov. Jay Inslee told reporters on Monday afternoon that a state budget deal is “imminent,” just hours after the state sent potential furlough notices to 25,000 of its employees.

The agreement would forestall a partial shutdown of Washington state government on July 1.

“The last few hours have produced very significant breakthroughs in my opinion,” said Inslee, who has been forced by impasse to call the Legislature into two special sessions. The lawmakers’ winter session has extended through spring into summer,and has threatened to outlast the National Hockey League playoffs.

Gov. Jay Inslee celebrates his election last November. The reward had been dealing with the Skagit bridge collapse, and a legislative budget impasse that threatened to furlough thousands of state employees. A deal is “imminent”, Inslee said on Monday.

Inslee was a little less effusive, but said he feels “confident” that legislators can work out a transportation package while final details of a budget deal are hammered out.

The governor, hesitant on the issue in last year’s campaign, has become a gung-ho advocate of getting a transportation plan passed and implemented this year. He declared Monday that “tens of thousands of jobs are ready to go” on improving Washington’s infrastructure, and that legislators understand there are “economic reasons” for better moving people and cargoes in a fast-growing state.

The legislative impasse has dragged on for weeks.

The State House of Representatives, run by Democrats, has insisted that any “downpayment” on full-funding of education not come at the expense of social and health care services to the state’s seniors and its poor residents. The Democrats wanted to close tax loopholes to get more revenue.

The State Senate was taken over this year by a Republican-dominated coalition, consisting of 23 GOP senators and two Democrats, under the titular leadership of State Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina. It has, in recent weeks, tried to attach budget agreement to other Republican priorities such as reform of workplace compensation, a big break to payday lenders and the right of school principals to reject placement of new teachers.

Inslee has strongly sided with fellow Democrats, but on Monday was playing the role of conciliator.

Asked why it has taken so long to get a budget agreement, the governor responded: “I am not driving through the rear view mirror.” A moment earlier, Inslee declared: “My goal here is to move the parties together.”

Inslee moved into the governor’s office in January with limited executive experience, but with 15 years under his belt as a member of Congress, and service as a state representative in the early 1990’s.

As soon as a budget deal is agreed to, said the governor, he will tell state employees to be on the job as of July 1.

“It is a very difficult situation to come this close to a shutdown in government services,” said Inslee.